Weekend Success!

How many of you wake up Monday morning, look at your accounts and say, “Where did my money go this weekend”? I have been in this camp many nights due to girl’s day trips and birthday shots, but this Monday, I am smiling with glee.

Somehow my boyfriend and I pulled out a trip to Chicago with friends for around $50. I’ll give you the deets, just because I know you’re wondering how in the world we did it. (I will add a disclaimer, I’m not going to calculate exactly how much gas we used. I like math, but that’s a bit much.)

Activity	Cost	How?
Gas to and from the Chicago Area	$15	We drove a Mazda3 there. I don’t know much about cars, but it’s a fuel efficient one. Also, we got gas at home, much cheaper than in the Chicago area.
Train Ride into and from Chicago	$12	We got lucky and the Metra “ran out of tickets” on the way there. A normal price for two round trip tickets with the weekend pass would have been $16, which is still not bad.
Ride to Shedd’s Aquarium	$0	This was our first experience with an Uber. Our friends use Uber often and said the driver kept turning it on and off so he could give us a tour of downtown. It was about $5, but they picked it up.
Admission to Shedd’s Aquarium	$0	Our friends’ have a membership to the aquarium, which let us get in free. Seriously consider supporting a museum/gardens to get free admission and usually the membership is tax deductible.
Misc	$14	Dip n’ Dots and a water bottle to keep us from starving. Not terrible for Chicago prices, but still not great.
Transportation to Dinner	$0	One way we kept the cost down was to walk all over Chicago. It was great weather and to see the sights, but man was I tired that night.
Dinner at Ed Devebic’s	$24	This restaurant isn’t one of the most “chic” places, but it has diner food and entertainment.
Transportation to Union Station	$0	More walking and window shopping. My sample from Ghirardelli's was a snack the next day.
Total Cost	$65	I expected us to blow the budget on this trip, but it ended up being a low-key day.

So see, it can be done. A whole day in Chicago for about $30 a person. How are you enjoying the summer on a budget?